rubya

Today, I finally decided to abandon this book after plodding through the first 206 pages. I don't know, Kushiel's Dart just didn't do it for me. There were many elements of the book which I thought were good- the backstory of Elua and how Terre D'Ange was founded, the Court of the Night Blooming Flowers and the culture of Naamah, etc. I thought the style was good and easy to get into, although at times it was a bit flowery, even for the fantasy epic genre.My main problem with the book was that the plot got bogged down with just so. many. details. Details that I didn't care about whatsoever. There were a million different characters that I needed to keep track of, and a ton of history and political intrigue that I didn't really care about. I wanted to read about Phedre and Alcuin and maybe Hyacinthe. I wanted to read about their adventures and development and interior world and society, but it seemed to me that the sole importance of these characters was to provide a backdrop to Delaunay's (not that intriguing) intrigues. It seems like such a waste since the alternate society the author creates is quite interesting and there's potential there.It just seems like too much work to continue this novel and try to keep everything straight, when I can turn to other fantasy epics which are easier to get into and don't require a 5 page "cast of characters" at the beginning or post-its with "notes" as a bookmark. The breaking point for me came when I came to page 206 and some sort of "drama" was unfolding (I don't want to spoil it for anyone who cares,) and I realized that I only vaguely recognized the names of the people to which the "drama" was happening. Furthermore, I had no clue why the drama was important and why the character who was freaking out was freaking out. It was then that I realized that it was time for me and Kushiel's Dart to part ways. To many good books out there...